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PACEs in the Criminal Justice System

Discussion and sharing of resources in working with clients involved in the criminal justice system and how screening for and treating ACEs will lead to successful re-entry of prisoners into the community and reduced recidivism for former offenders.

Tagged With "california prisons"

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Mothers in Prison (www.nytimes.com)

Christine Cissy White ·
Excerpt 1: TULSA, Okla. — The women’s wing of the jail here exhales sadness. The inmates, wearing identical orange uniforms, ache as they undergo withdrawal from drugs, as they eye one another suspiciously, and as they while away the days stripped of freedom, dignity, privacy and, most painful of all, their children. “She’s disappointed in me,” Janay Manning, 29, a drug offender shackled to a wall for an interview, said of her eldest daughter, a 13-year-old. And then she started crying, and...
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New film rethinking incarceration for women in Canada

Elizabeth Perry ·
A new documentary film has recently been released called Conviction. It is self-described as A COLLABORATIVE DOCUMENTARY FILM THAT ENVISIONS ALTERNATIVES TO PRISON THROUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN BEHIND BARS I've recently seen the film and highly recommend it. The content is Canadian, but no doubt the issues the women deal with are universal.
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New York's Solitary Confinement Overhaul Gets Pushback From Union [NPR.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
In 2015, New York announced it had reached a landmark settlement with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the state's aggressive use of solitary confinement to discipline inmates. Five Mualimm-ak is one of the activists who pushed for the changes. He spent five years in solitary and says it left him broken. "When people say you survived solitary? Nobody survives that," he says. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, agreed to a multi-year process phasing in limits on the time inmates...
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New York's Solitary Confinement Overhaul Gets Pushback From Union [NPR.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
In 2015, New York announced it had reached a landmark settlement with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the state's aggressive use of solitary confinement to discipline inmates. Five Mualimm-ak is one of the activists who pushed for the changes. He spent five years in solitary and says it left him broken. "When people say you survived solitary? Nobody survives that," he says. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, agreed to a multi-year process phasing in limits on the time inmates...
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North Dakota’s Norway Experiment (motherjones.com)

Late one night in October 2015, North Dakota prisons chief Leann Bertsch met Karianne Jackson, one of her deputies, for a drink in a hotel bar in Oslo, Norway. They had just spent an exhausting day touring Halden, the maximum-security facility Time has dubbed " the world's most humane prison", yet neither of them could sleep. Halden is situated in a remote forest of birch, pine, and spruce with an understory of blueberry shrubs. The prison is surrounded by a single wall. It has no barbed...
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Now Is the Time to Transform the Criminal Justice System (aspeninstitute.org)

There is a sense of renewed urgency among criminal justice reform advocates in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. As COVID-19 cases rise in jails, prisons, and detention centers, efforts have been made to release young people, older and vulnerable adults, and undocumented migrants. Advocates have encouraged policymakers to consider clemency and approve medical furloughs for those with health challenges. Among many other recommendations, they have called for the immediate release of people...
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NYC Books Through Bars (dailygood.org)

I recently slipped through a sidewalk cellar door to enter the basement of Freebird Books , a large space crammed with books organized into different sections, where I spent the evening reading letters from prison inmates and selecting and packaging books for them. At least twice a week , volunteers go through the 700-800 letters NYC Books Through Bars , a collective based in New York City, New York, receives from inmates every month and fulfill their requests. It's a team effort. Founded 21...
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Offender reentry program fits national initiative (ocregister.com)

The importance of reentry services for offenders has gained public prominence. The Department of Justice and Attorney General Loretta Lynch recently underscored this by announcing National Reentry Week April 24-30. During this week, the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. attorney’s offices and others will coordinate and promote various reentry events, such as job fairs, mentorship programs and other community activities like the ones we organize frequently from this center. The Santa Ana BI Day...
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One man’s story: A remarkable story about crime, punishment and the quest for forgiveness on the mean streets of Stockton. The ballad of Rocky Rontal. (californiasunday.com)

Rocky was raised in Stockton, California, on the far south side. "Further you go, the worser it gets. And we lived at the very end." Rocky’s father, Ronly Rontal, was a small-time hustler who drove a truck and often gathered with his friends to drink whiskey and play guitar on weekends. When he drank, he’d get violent. Rocky wasn’t the oldest or the strongest, but he was the bravest, and so the task of standing up to their father fell to him. It happened most often on the first and the 15th,...
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One professor's fight to help the children of incarcerated parents [Phys.org]

Jane Stevens ·
When I was ten years old my father, a lawyer, was incarcerated. He was what some people call a "white collar criminal" and spent two years in prison. Because I come from a loving family and because my family had other supports and privileges (i.e. we were white and middle class in a community that rewarded both), my siblings and I fared well despite of my father's incarceration. And so for a long time, decades, really, I didn't discuss my father's history. I didn't know anyone else who had...
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Oprah Looks At How California’s Infamous Pelican Bay Prison Is Leading The Way In Reforming Solitary Confinement [witnessla.com]

Alicia Doktor ·
On Sunday’s 60 Minutes broadcast Oprah Winfrey reported on the use of solitary confinement in American prisons. She talked about how California is leading the way to reform of the practice, with changes in the state’s Pelican Bay Prison, which Winfrey called the most notorious state penitentiary in America. It is a story that is very much worth watching. “Designed and built as a ‘supermax’ facility,” Oprah began, referring to the 1989-constructed prison, “it’s been used for nearly 30 years...
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Overdoses in California prisons up 113% in three years — nearly 1,000 incidents in 2018 (sfchronicle.com)

Nearly 1,000 men and women in California prisons overdosed last year and required emergency medical attention in what officials acknowledge is part of an alarming spike in opioid use by those behind bars, according to records obtained by The Chronicle. The number of inmates treated for drug or alcohol overdoses jumped from 469 to 997 from 2015 to 2018 — a 113% increase. While many of the prisoners survived, the most recent data available show drug-related inmate deaths are on the rise, too —...
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Part 1 (of 3) Do you want an answer to ACEs?

Roger Kluck ·
I am sitting on it. Really. Not just me, but a corps of some 5000 people around the world. We have been fostering recovery from ACEs and Trauma for over 40 years – long before the ACEs study developed the term. We have served over half a million people worldwide – but almost no one knows we are here. Like you, many of us have been angry and frustrated that it has taken decision makers and policy setters over 20 years to learn about ACEs and incorporate trauma informed care into practice and...
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Past trauma causes many women to wind up in jail [thehill.com]

Alicia Doktor ·
As a trauma psychologist and researcher, I applaud the article in "The New York Times" this morning, on how providing incarcerated mothers the opportunity to interact and play with their children during visits may reduce the trauma of separation. But, as the Senate thinks about bipartisan prison reform , I urge them to take a broader trauma-informed approach. This is necessary for effective correctional management, prisoner health and successful re-entry to our communities, particularly for...
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Paying (and Paying and Paying) a Debt to Society [TheAtlantic.com]

Samantha Sangenito ·
Last week, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued a ruling that sent a small shockwave through the criminal-justice world. Rather than sentencing a woman who had been convicted of smuggling more than a pound of cocaine into the United States to a few years in prison, Judge Frederic Block opted for extraordinary leniency and gave her probation. Block’s rationale was simple enough: The “collateral consequences” of being a convicted felon are punishment enough. Quoting experts on American...
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Pipeline to Prison May Start with Childhood Trauma

Emily Kochly ·
Leah Bartos - California Health Report - January 6, 2016 Pediatric patients giving their health histories at the Center for Youth Wellness, a health clinic in the impoverished Bayview Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco, are asked for more than the usual details about allergies and current prescriptions. Doctors there need a different kind of medical history: did their parents use drugs or have a mental illness? Were any family member in jail or prison? Have their parents divorced or...
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Pregnant Behind Bars: What We Do And Don't Know About Pregnancy And Incarceration [NPR]

Karen Clemmer ·
There are 111,616 incarcerated women in the United States, a 7-fold increase since 1980. Some of these women are pregnant, but amid reports of women giving birth in their cells or shackled to hospital beds , prison and public health officials have no hard data on how many incarcerated women are pregnant, or on the outcomes of those pregnancies. A study published in The American Journal of Public Health Thursday changes that. The study included 57 percent of the US prison population (New...
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Presentation to Philadelphia Defenders Association

Leslie Lieberman ·
On October 17th I gave a presentation to 70 + attorneys from the Defenders Association.  Several members of this group assisted me by sending me great information about ACEs and the criminal justice system for which I am grateful.  The 3...
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President Obama issued an executive order "banning the box" for federal government employees. (upworthy.com)

Earlier today, President Obama issued an executive order "banning the box" for federal government employees. What does this mean? Well, you know how on job applications, there's sometimes a little box that asks whether or not you've been convicted of a crime ? With the wave of a pen, Obama just ordered that box to be removed from applications for jobs within the federal government, saying, "We can't dismiss people out of hand simply because of a mistake they made in the past." The...
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Priest Responds To Gang Members' 'Lethal Absence Of Hope' With Jobs, And Love [npr.org]

Alicia Doktor ·
TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guest, Father Greg Boyle, has worked with former gang members in LA for over 30 years. He's the founder of Homeboy Industries, which was created to help former gang members and people transitioning out of prison create stable lives and stay out of gangs. Instead of Father Greg trying to convince business owners to hire young people who are at risk, he created jobs for them through Homeboy Industries. Homeboy is a series of businesses...
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Private Lockups May Prosper Under Trump Due to Predictions of More Deportations [JJIE.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
The private prison industry may end up being one of the winners under the incoming Trump administration, though it’s not clear how or when the new administration will act. Stocks of for-profit prison operators tumbled after the U.S. Department of Justice announced in August that it would no longer house federal inmates in private lockups. But they rebounded after the Electoral College upset in November by Donald Trump, who campaigned on pledges to crack down on crime and step up deportations...
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Private Prisons Are Back in Business [PSMag.com]

Samantha Sangenito ·
It was only a matter of time before Attorney General Jeff Sessions backtracked on the Department of Justice’s earlier plans to phase out the use of private prisons. Indeed, the American Civil Liberties Union has been concerned about the former senator’s ties to the private prison lobby since October, when Geo Group—one of the biggest private prison corporations—hired two of Sessions’ former aides, David Stewart and Ryan Robichaux. On Thursday, Sessions issued a memo overturning the one put...
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Programs Help Incarcerated Moms Bond With Their Babies In Prison

McKinley McPheeters ·
In Daidre Kimp's room, the walls are pink and white and there are family photos on a bulletin board. A stroller sits in a corner. It's early morning. Kimp grabs a diaper, a tiny shirt and pants and lifts her smiley, 8-month-old daughter, Stella, from her crib. They are getting ready for the day at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) in Gig Harbor, about a one hour drive from Seattle. It's their home, at least until Kimp enters a work-release program next spring. She picks up...
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Prop. 47 Reduced Recidivism & Infused Money Into Rehabilitation, But Also Boosted Theft-Related Crime Rates, Report Says (witnessla.com)

While California crime rates remain at historic lows, voter-approved Proposition 47 appears to have led to an increase in certain property crimes, according to a new Public Policy Institute of California report that aims to shed some light on the effects of the measure–an ongoing, contentious point of debate in the state. While researchers found what appeared to be a correlation between Prop. 47 and upticks in larceny, the measure did not make a measurable contribution to the state’s...
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Putting Their Prison Pasts Behind Them (nationswell.com)

These social entrepreneurs aren't just working to reform the criminal justice system - they're a product of it too. America's criminal justice system currently housed more than 2 million people - that's more per capita than any other nation on earth. Even worse: Many are repeat offenders who haven't been offered the support or resources to get their lives back on track once released. A new initiative, backed in part by the singer John Legend, is hoping to reverse those dire statistics.
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Radio for Good [SSIR.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
His radio debut may have been only a few months ago, but in that time Philip, a young man with a broad grin and a genial delivery that holds your attention, has come a long way. “When I listen [to my early shows], I can hear that I was a bit overexuberant. Now, I take my time and make sure that my recording levels are right, that things fade in and out correctly,” he says. Philip’s progress from novice to accomplished broadcaster is exactly what you would expect of a keen intern on a...
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Real Rehabilitation – The Benefits of Organic Gardening in Prisons (wakeup-world.com)

Adding gardens to prisons may seem trite; prior to the 1970s, many prisons, including Alcatraz, had them. Then came an era when, as The Washington Post put it, “lock-’em-up-and-throw-away-the-key justice took hold.” Gardens in prisons disappeared, along with their many profound, yet little-recognized, benefits. Today some prison officials are recognizing the importance of rehabilitation. Most prisoners are released, but as it stands more than 60 percent will be sent back to prison after...
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Real Resilience is now a PODCAST

Crystal Wyatt ·
Women who support an incarcerated loved one finally has a place to share their stories on the Real Resilience P.W.L. Podcast.
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Rebuilding Lives while Building Homes: Tony McGuire's Resilience-Building Carpentry Class

Tara Mah ·
Tony McGuire is a great carpenter. He ran his own construction business for years. Then he wanted to get into teaching. He became a Tenured Faculty member at a local community college, and landed in the state penitentiary as a Basic Skills Carpentry instructor. So how could that be connected to saving lives with a 20 buck investment? Tony got touched by CRI’s trauma-informed training. He saw himself past and present and knew somehow that, “with this information comes the responsibility to...
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RecycleForce: Helping Returning Citizens Find Employment [mdrc.org]

By MDRC, May 2020 Subsidized employment programs use public funds to create or support jobs for people who can’t find employment in the regular labor market. These jobs are often called “transitional” because they are temporary until program participants can find permanent unsubsidized work. The largest subsidized employment programs in the United States have operated during periods of economic distress, most recently during the Great Recession in 2009-2010. These programs help to ensure...
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Reducing Harm for People in the Corrections System [Trauma Informed Oregon]

Karen Clemmer ·
When I entered Framingham State Prison for the first time at age 19, I was placed in a cold, dark holding cell with 9 other women. Most of us were in bad shape, experiencing withdrawal symptoms, bruised from domestic violence, and simply scared to death of what we would experience after entering our designated cellblocks. After almost an entire day of being crammed in that cell, I was finally moved and asked to remove my clothes in front of an intimidating, angry-looking woman and then to...
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Report finds nearly half of U.S. adults have had an immediate family member incarcerated [cbsnews.com]

Alicia Doktor ·
NEW YORK — The price paid by inmates who are behind bars extends far beyond prison walls. A new report finds nearly half of all adult Americans have had a family member incarcerated at some point in their lives. Research from FWD.us and Cornell University shows 113 million adults in the U.S., or 45 percent, have had an immediate family member incarcerated for at least one night, and minorities are disproportionately affected. One in seven adults have had a family member locked up for more...
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Research Central: Data on Characteristics, Risk Factors, and Protective Factors of Children With Incarcerated Parents (ojjdp.gov)

An estimated 1.7 million youth younger than age 18 have at least one parent currently in prison in the United States, and millions more have a parent currently in jail. Incarcerated parents and their children are a diverse group, and associations between parental incarceration and developmental outcomes are complicated. Research has shown that having an incarcerated parent can present individual and environmental risks for the child and increase the likelihood of negative outcomes. Because...
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Restorative Justice conference focuses on 'energy of healing' (thecalifornian.com)

With crime and its aftermath often rippling through Monterey County , more than a hundred residents gathered at Hartnell College on Saturday to talk about how victims, offenders and the community can transform the negative effects of crime into positive solutions. Restorative justice is a system of criminal justice that focuses on rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. The “ Restorative Justice Conference: Justice that Heals ” was hosted...
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Restoring Health and Humanity to the Recently Incarcerated

Mariel Gingrich ·
“I told [my client] you are not cattle — I don’t get paid per head. You’re an individual who deserves respect…And you now have the ability to make decisions about your health care.”
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Restrictive housing is associated with increased risk of death after release from prison

Karen Clemmer ·
By Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, Ph.D., in the UNC department of social medicine, finds that people who were held in restrictive housing while serving time in prison face a substantial increased risk of death after their release. Oct 4, 2019 for UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – October 4, 2019 – A new study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that being held in restrictive housing ( i.e., solitary confinement ) is...
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San Diego County jails make changes to treat mentally ill inmates, curb suicides (sandiegouniontribune.com)

For decades, jails throughout the state have operated as de facto mental health facilities, a trend that intensified in recent years after California changed its laws to keep some offenders out of the state’s overcrowded prison system. In San Diego County, where there were 12 inmate suicides in 2014 and 2015, Sheriff Bill Gore and his staff have been working to improve mental health services at the county jails to prevent more deaths. The department has modified the mental health screening...
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Serving Your Community: Pivoting a Social Enterprise to Meet Community Needs (aspeninstitute.org)

How can you tackle recidivism and serve your community at the same time? Civil Society Fellow Matthew Fieldman and the team at EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute is leading the way. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, EDWINS is ensuring their work bettering the futures of previously incarcerated individuals would not end due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but instead pivoted their model to meet the needs of their community. We spoke with Matt about the EDWINS model, what it took to pivot, and...
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Signed Out Of Prison But Not Signed Up For Health Insurance [NPR.org]

Samantha Sangenito ·
Before he went to prison, Ernest killed his 2-year-old daughter in the grip of a psychotic delusion. When the Indiana Department of Correction released him in 2015, he was terrified something awful might happen again. He had to see a doctor. He had only a month's worth of pills to control his delusions and mania. He was desperate for insurance coverage. But the state failed to enroll him in Medicaid, although under the Affordable Care Act Indiana had expanded the health insurance program to...
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Skene: Elayn Hunt inmates learn about impacts of childhood trauma, applying research to their own lives

Linda Manaugh ·
Ryan Crotwell's memories of growing up in French Settlement are filled with mental snapshots of abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father. First he remembers kneeling on rice. Then the whippings started — "switches, belts, whatever was within reach." Crotwell, 34, recalls acting out in school and receiving brutal punishments at home. He was institutionalized for psychiatric treatment twice before his 10th birthday and diagnosed with various psychological conditions including attention...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science

Carey Sipp ·
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Special Report: 'Death Sentence' - the hidden coronavirus toll in U.S. jails and prisons (msn.com)

COVID-19 has spread rapidly behind bars in Detroit and across the nation, according to an analysis of data gathered by Reuters from 20 county jail systems, 10 state prison systems and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which runs federal penitentiaries. But scant testing and inconsistent reporting from state and local authorities have frustrated efforts to track or contain its spread, particularly in local jails. And figures compiled by the U.S. government appear to undercount the number of...
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Staying Connected: Moms Who Pump in Prison (nextcity.org)

An innovative lactation program encourages incarcerated new moms to maintain their breast milk supply, reinforcing maternal bonds and providing health benefits to their newborns. Jackson is one of six mothers at Riverside who are currently participating in the lactation program, one of the first of its kind inside an American jail. Women who give birth just before or during their time here are given access to breastfeeding education and the facilities of the lactation room, plus additional...
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Student Project Investigates Incarceration and Debt as Predictors of Homelessness [NWCPHP]

Karen Clemmer ·
The Nickelsville Northlake tiny-house village provides shelter to Seattle's homeless residents.
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Equine program helps inmates deal with trauma, addiction (mercedsunstar.com)

On a recent fall morning, four women inmates from Chester County Prison entered an indoor arena at the Thorncroft Equestrian Center and began to meet the duo who have been helping them navigate their way toward success outside of the prison walls. But Jubilee and Mia are not your traditional counselors or social workers. Rather, they are the horses the quartet have come to know while engaging in equine therapy at the center outside Malvern, a developing part of the county's acclaimed Women's...
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Exploring Mass Incarceration as a Societal Problem [PSMag.com]

Samantha Sangenito ·
Activists and policymakers often rattle off figures to get Americans to care about their country's mass-incarceration problem : More than two million people are locked up in prisons and jails in the United States. In state prisons, African-American men are imprisoned at a rate around five times higher than that of white men. The U.S. accounts for a little over 4 percent of the world's population, yet holds 21 percent of the world's prison population. But PBS's new documentary The Prison in...
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Federal Report Says Women In Prison Receive Harsher Punishments Than Men (npr.org)

Women in prison, when compared with incarcerated men, often receive disproportionately harsh punishments for minor violations of prison rules, according to a report released Wednesday by a federal fact-finding agency. The report from the United States Commission on Civil Rights comes after public hearings in 2019 and a yearlong investigation. The commission's findings reflect and cite stories by NPR that looked at why prison discipline policies often punish women more harshly than men. In...
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First Maine inmate to enroll in graduate school conducts groundbreaking research in prison (Portland Phoenix ME)

Karen Clemmer ·
By Jordan Bailey, January 22, 2020, for Portland Phoenix ME In 2008, 21-year-old Brandon Brown shot a man in Portland’s Old Port. He was eventually convicted of attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault, and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Now Brown is poised to be the first person in Maine to earn a master’s degree while incarcerated, and may be the first inmate to conduct approved research on fellow inmates for his thesis project. Brown shot former Marine James Sanders, crippling...
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Florida Is One of the Most Overincarcerated Places in U.S. Is It Likely to Change? [jjie.org]

Alicia Doktor ·
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Randy Ratledge doesn’t get out much. Since he was arrested in 2012, Ratledge, 61, has a fear of the police. He doesn’t like leaving his home, and definitely doesn’t like coming downtown, where he was locked up for 117 days. He faced 120 years in prison, and under the state’s minimum mandatory laws, a judge would have had no choice but to impose that sentence if he’d been convicted. [For more on this story by Larry Hannan, go to...
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Florida Woman Became Prison Pen Pals with the 13-Year-Old Who Shot Her in the Face (people.com)

Ian Manuel spent 26 years behind bars after he shot a woman in the face when he was just 13 years old, but he rarely felt alone. That’s because the woman he hurt, Debbie Baigrie , decided to forgive him — and more. Baigrie, then 28, was out with friends for the first time since giving birth to her second child, and she was walking back to her car to head home. Manuel, who had a history of minor run-ins with the law, was with a group of older men and was being peer-pressured into robbing...
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